THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 



73 



Here is the description of a quagga as given by Sir W. 

 Cornwallis Harris, who had abundant opportunities of studying 

 (1836-37) the quagga, the Burchell Zebra, and the Mountain 

 Zebra in their native haunts. " The true zebra is exclusively 

 confined to mountainous regions, from which it rarely, if ever, 

 descends : but the extensive plains of Southern Africa abound 

 with two distinct species of the same genus, the quagga, and 



FIG. 38. The typical Quagga. 



O'er the brown Karroo, where the bleating cry 

 Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively, 

 And the timorous quagga 's shrill whistling neigh 

 Is heard by the fountain at twilight grey, 

 Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane, 

 With wild hoofs scouring the desolate plain." 



Pringle adds in a note " The cry of the quagga (pronounced quagha, or quacha) 

 is very different from either that of the horse or ass, and I have endeavoured to 

 express its peculiar character in the above line." (Pringle's lines and note are 

 cited by Mr Tegetmeier, Horses, Asses, Zebras, p. 62.) It is quite possible that 

 the discrepancy between the descriptions of Edwards and Pringle may be due to 

 Pringle's using quagga in the common Boer fashion to describe the Burchell 

 Zebra. 



